Chief Technology Officer shares their SFIA journey - webinar recording

A candid, practitioner-led account, presented by Davie Gow, Chief Technology Officer at Arnold Clark. The focus is on what worked, what didn’t, and what had to change, with the explicit aim of helping other organisations apply SFIA in a realistic way.

Context and drivers

Arnold Clark is a large UK automotive retailer with a sizeable digital function of around 300 people. At board level, career progression was well understood in sales roles, but far less clear in digital roles.

At the same time, staff feedback highlighted that progression felt opaque and sometimes subjective. The risk was not just disengagement, but attrition driven by uncertainty rather than capability.

The programme aim became a structured progression framework that would:

• make career paths visible and comparable
• support retention by enabling informed market comparisons
• give managers a consistent basis for development, expectations and promotion evidence

A C-suite perspective

This session offers a C-suite perspective on how Arnold Clark applied SFIA in practice.

The insights below reflect choices made in this specific organisational context, rather than a recommended or universal approach.

Key observations from the case include:

• career progression in digital roles was treated as a board-level clarity and retention issue, rather than an HR-led initiative
• SFIA was positioned as foundational infrastructure, integrated into existing governance rather than introduced as a standalone programme
• progression was designed around multiple career paths, avoiding a single mandated ladder
• the main delivery constraint proved to be manager capability, not the framework itself
• skills data gained traction once translated into board-relevant language such as progress, comparability and risk
• separating internal capability clarity from external recruitment messaging helped avoid market friction
• making skills visible surfaced previously unknown capability, particularly in emerging areas

Key points and insights

Role architecture and progression

• using type roles as templates is an effective bridge to agreed local roles - [ see Standard skills profiles ]
• skill sets help express progression as a change in capability mix
• multiple career paths reduce reliance on a single “ladder”

Skills language and evidence

• separating SFIA skills from tools and technologies avoids keyword-driven confusion
• attributes (technologies, experience, domains) provide practical context without redefining SFIA skills
• surfacing unknown skills supports mobility and faster staffing

Assessment cadence and governance

• a six-week update cycle is sustainable and current
• board engagement worked because outputs were translated into meaningful measures

Manager enablement

• skills frameworks will struggle to deliver benefits without consistent development conversations
• manager enablement is critical 

Career progression/Professional development

• anchor objectives to levels of responsibility to improve fairness - [ see  SFIA essence statements for levels ]
• stretch goals help build evidence even when vacancies are limited

Recruitment 

• kept external adverts market-aligned
• reserved SFIA for internal development 

Webinar recording

[  Download the slides ]

Follow up

If you have any queries for Davie or for the SFIA Foundation - please get in touch